"I don’t think brands can afford the luxury of ignoring social [data] these days," John Beale stated in a recent interview. As the head of strategy at Cerebra Communication, John has had years of experience with campaigns, ranging from purely traditional to the ever-increasing digital ones.
"You have to make sure you’re always reading up on what’s happening in digital; the environment changes regularly and is quite unforgiving if you don’t keep abreast of new developments." This thought leader strategises for both existing and new clients, ensuring that their objectives are being met.
As a hybrid strategist, he fulfils both a traditional and digital media role, adding, ‘I don’t think any strategist can claim isolation within their media. You need to understand how the two complement each other to really make a campaign work for the target market’.
Beale currently specialises in Social Media, as most clients’ needs in terms of strategy are for it – "Thankfully, experience, post campaign insights and direct feedback from Online Reputation Management (ORM), as well as social searches, can drive some great insights."
He added, "Social data, specifically in the form of ORM reports, is done with an emphasis on the analysis of that information. It's invaluable to the business. I don’t think there’s any quicker (or better) way to get an indication of the conversation around a product or service than listening to the conversation on social media. That data can drive key learnings and [bring about] changes to the development process internally. However, business must be willing to listen, and then act."
Beale briefly described a large cellular operator he worked previously where an in-depth ORM analysis was conducted, evidently showing that a larger customer service element was needed. Had this only been discovered months later, it would have resulted in disappointed customers and the company being far behind on delivery. The ORM analysis provided the luxury of prevention, whereas finding out later that more extensive customer service capacity was needed would’ve required an expensive cure.
Beale listed that the volume of mentions, sentiment, key nodes (conversation starter/disseminators), and categories of conversation (products/services) are the metrics that provide insight into strategy – "I think ORM insights should aid in the creation of business strategy, including the augmentation of that strategy."
Beale says that it’s important to understand what’s being said, particularly for consumer-centric brands, as well as to have an understanding of the channels used to further the conversation. "It’s all or nothing," he confirms, and because brands can’t afford to ignore social data, which allows for the management of risks and the leveraging of opportunities, brands will be taking the ‘all’ that it has to offer.